Saturday, August 16, 2014

There’s another story which depicts Ganesha as her creation. Under this Puranic legend, Goddess Parvati longed for a child and conveyed the same to Lord Shiva, who asked her to undertake the Punyaka penance. For a year, Goddess Parvati underwent trials and tribulations to test the strength of her vow. She completed each task and thus was granted a boon and was blessed with a son.

Gods and Goddesses from all over came to Mount Kailasa to bless this child. Even the nine planets (grahas) came to greet the divine couple and meet the newly born. One of the grahas, Shani, however refused to look at the child, as he was cursed by his jealous wife that whoever he looked at with admiration would be destroyed. Parvati insisted that Shani looked at her son and when he did, the head of the son got separated from the body.

This created a commotion on Mount Kailasa and Goddess Parvati wailed so loudly that Lord Vishnu came to see what had happened. Upon seeing the headless child, He flew off on Garuda, his vahana, to search for a head to replace the lost one. He found a herd of elephants sleeping on the banks of the river Pushpabhadra and chose one whose head was facing the north. This head of the elephant was placed on the boy, who was given life again by Vishnu. Lord Vishnu also gave him eight names, one of them was Ganesha.